Live music.. coming soon to a pub near you (hopefully).
We now have a minor step forward for licensing and live music. The current licensing laws mean that most, if not all, solo and duo performances have to be licensed under the Licensing Act as “regulated entertainment.” This means that many small pubs have been forced to put an end to any form of live music. That means no open mike nights, no piano in the pub on a Sunday and no sing alongs.
Now, it has finally been announced (albeit more than two years since it was first promised by Government ministers) by Gerry Sutcliffe, that the Government are launching a consultation to look at the need for a licence for small (up to 100 people) indoor live music performances, between 8.00am and 11.00pm.
Gerry Sutcliffe, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Minister said: “Going to see a band, musician or singer is a very important part of many people’s lives and we’re keen to do what we can to support audiences and musicians. An exemption for venues with 100 people or less would benefit many small venues, particularly unlicensed premises such as village halls and cafes, which may currently be put off by licensing requirements. But we are also proposing that the exemption can be revoked at individual premises if there have been problems with noise, nuisance or disorder.”
Currently anyone wanting to put on live music must have a premises licence, a club premises certificate or a temporary event notice, although there are a few exceptions for incidental, background music. The proposed exemption would mean that all licensed premises, such as pubs and clubs, would be able to put on small scale live music, regardless of whether or not their existing licence includes a provision for such regulated entertainment events.
Even unlicensed premises such as cafes, restaurants, village halls and record shops would also be able to host events without the need of for a licence.
To ensure that any concerns of people living close to venues are taken into account, the exemption would only apply to performances that are indoors, and take place between 8am and 11pm. Residents and responsible authorities such as the police would have the power to call for an exemption to be revoked at a specific venue if there was cause for concern.
Martin Rawlings, director of pub and leisure at the British Beer and Pub Association said: “The BBPA welcomes any measures that can help pubs overcome existing barriers to putting on live music, helping aspiring and established musicians to reach audiences while at the same time boosting business, particularly during these difficult economic times.”
Not everyone is so easily placated, however. Jazz musician and Telegraph blogger Sebastian Scotney, a vocal supporter of the small venue exemption, wasn’t impressed with Sutcliffe’s announcement last week. Writing on the Telegraph website, Scotney says: “What Sutcliffe and his head civil servant Andrew Cunningham are doing is to launch yet another consultation on this issue. So that now makes over six years of legislation, eight consultations (this is the ninth), two government research projects, two national review processes and a Parliamentary Select Committee report. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport want ‘responses’ on this one by 23 March. One day it may happen. But, despite this misleading press release, small venue licensing reform is in the long grass until after the election.”
Not only that, but the DCMS amendment intended to implement this proposal is already flawed. Hamish Birchall of the Live Music Forum, part of the Live Music Campaign, points out that, “the draft reform order, set out on p26 of the 33-page DCMS consultation document … could not work because it fails to address the licensing of ‘entertainment facilities’.
Puzzled? The draft reform order needs ironing out
“Under the Licensing Act 2003 the provision of entertainment facilities is separately licensable irrespective of any actual performance of live music. This covers, for example, the provision of musical instruments, amplification, or even a stage. Any new exemption has to ensure that such provision is also exempt.
“The failure to deal with this will be particularly embarrassing to licensing minister Gerry Sutcliffe. On 22nd October 2009, during Parliamentary licensing debate, he said:
‘For facilities to be separately licensable in such situations would be absurd and was not intended under the 2003 Act. As part of the clarification, the consultation will propose a change to the definition of “entertainment facilities” so that the mere provision of musical instruments, such as a pub piano, is not licensable.’
“It seems hardly credible that the omission of this vital clarification within the published consultation was merely an oversight by DCMS lawyers and the licensing team, particularly given the long time they have had to come up with a solution.
“This is of course not the only problem with the consultation. Its timing is almost guaranteed to ensure that reform cannot happen before the general election which must take place by May.”
Not much can be done about the timing it seems, and what’s also certain is that the live music debate will continue to rage on, and on, but we must hope that the pitfall mentioned above is just one of the things that will be ironed out in the course of the public consultation.
The consultation, now published, is available at www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/consultations/6499.aspx
If you want to make your views heard, the closing date for responses is 26 March 2010. Comments or queries should be directed to : licensingconsultation@culture.gsi.gov.uk
Thanks, an interesting piece. My local pub down the road used to have live music and sing alongs all the time until a few years ago. I really miss it. Since that stopped (and what with the smoking ban) it seems that the government have really got it in for the pub trade. I really hope this consultation produces a result – I don’t think the proposed change goes far enough – but it is better than nothing – for now!
I’ve submitted my views on this dreadful Entertainment Act to the email address given above but doubt whether it will do any good.
In my opinion, the whole conception of this Act and its implementation shows how out of touch Parliament is with the ordinary amateur music-making law-abiding public.
At the heart of the problem is the fact that there is no way for individuals to engage in dialogue with Government about legislation before or after it is enacted.
People who make community music, whether folk musicians or otherwise, are just individuals participating positively in their community. They are usually unpaid and do it for the best of community values. Arrayed against them is a heartless and impenetrable governmental machine.
Members of Parliament, in my experience, do not reply to constituents communications and anyway have little ‘clout’ unless they are senior members of the government.
Civil servants don’t reply to communications either and seem to use this as a technique to deal with awkward issues which is a disgraceful tactic.
Invitations to comment on a consultation like the one above allow no facility for forensic dialogue on legislative issues. People who submit their comments and experiences have no idea what part their efforts have played in the eventual decision, or whether it is just a window dressing exercise with submissions left unread.
It seems that only those who can pay large sums of money to the Governmental lobby machine have any voice at all. Is this democracy?
As legislation intrudes more and more into the private lives of decent, respectable, law-abiding individuals, there should be a better way for ordinary people, including amateur folk musicians to have a direct say in legislation affecting them.
Governmental online forums open to public and with mandatory Government involvement where legislative issues can be discussed properly would provide a knowledge database and prevent bad law like the Entertainment Act. These online interactive forums are long overdue.
Half a dozen amateur singers and musicians sitting around a table in a pub, with the permission of the publican, are not a threat to the community but an asset and should be treated as such.
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